For health and for making a statement, that is what Bike to Work Day will try to imply on May 14.Expect a lot of bikes spread all over the streets in two days time as residents band together to ditch the usual cars and go to work on two wheels using pedal power.

“As a participant in past Team Bike Challenges, I have found that using my bike can get me anywhere I need to go quickly, with a lot less stress,” says Santa Clara County Supervisor Ken Yeager, who also serves as a member of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), which funds a major portion of the Bay Area’s Bike to Work Day activities. “It’s also a great way to get your exercise in before the workday.”

Already, more than 300,000 bicycle trips are made every weekday by Bay Area residents. According to MTC’s most recent Bay Area Travel Survey, more of these bicycle trips are to work than for any other purpose (81,000 each day), but there are almost as many bike-to-shop trips across the region (75,000).

Alternative transportation is an important component of MTC’s newly-adopted Transportation 2035 Plan for the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area. The plan boosts bicycling infrastructure investment fivefold over earlier regional transportation plans (from $200 million to $1 billion).

It also increases funding to spur compact transit-oriented development, which in turn encourages more walking and biking trips, and launches a new Climate Action Program that will provide funding for safe bicycle trips to transit and school.

This event is not affiliated with Keetsa.

(Source) Press